I suppose one reason many of us were first attracted to Dutton was its attention to offbeat and neglected British repertoire, which is why its brief foray into American music was so promising. With all due respect to Piston (whose slow movements in the symphonies I absolutely cherish) and Diamond (his Second Symphony is a real masterwork), we now have excellent and stunningly well-recorded performances of most of their major works. That's why the interest in absurdly neglected composers such as Converse, Chadwick, Gilbert and Heinrich ranks as pivotal -- nobody has really tackled them and they, too, offer important music for the truly discerning listener. My opinion, of course!
I agree with you, Bill. There are still quite a few major Diamond works that haven't made it to CD yet, e.g. the Violin Concertos 1 and 3, Cello Concerto, Piano Concerto, Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, Secular Cantata for chorus and orchestra, Choral Symphony
To Music and Symphonies 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11, all of which cry out for recordings. I wouldn't necessarily say that Chadwick is "absurdly neglected"; he is, without a doubt, the most well-represented on disc of the composers you group him with. The only major work of his that remains unrecorded is his Symphony no. 1 in C. But Converse, Gilbert, Heinrich, Hadley, Edward Burlingame Hill, Arthur Farwell, Louis Coerne, Philip Greeley Clapp (composer of 12 symphonies, no less!), Arthur Shepherd-all these and more composers are seriously neglected even though they played major roles in mid to late 19th-early 20th century Americana. For starters, I'd like to see recorded all five Converse symphonies, nos. 1, 3 and 5 of Hadley and Farwell's
Rudolf Gott Symphony, which is reputedly a massive, Brucknerian composition. Based on the magically mysterious
Gods of the Mountain Suite and a couple piano pieces I've heard, Farwell had something of an original voice, and a powerful one.
P.S. I also agree with you about Piston's slow movements-so poignant yet restrained. Who knew a neoclassical composer could write such effective slow movements (Stravinsky's
Aria II from his VC is another example that comes to mind)? The gorgeous slow movement from Piston's Divertimento for nine instruments almost brought me to tears, I kid you not!
